Story of the woman who is set to become China’s first hearing-impaired lawyer

"I will use my hands to spread the voice of justice to hearing-impaired people who are in need of legal assistance,” reads a note written by Tan Ting, an interning lawyer with a hearing disability.

Photo shows Tan Ting. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

There are more than 20 million people living with a hearing impairment in China. This January, 28-year-old Tan became the only person within this group to pass China’s unified qualification exam for legal professionals. At present, she is an interning lawyer at a law firm, and next year she will officially become a lawyer after her internship comes to an end.

Tan was born in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Sichuan province. When she was eight, Tan lost her hearing and soon thereafter she dropped out of school for a period of five years. After she regained confidence, Tan decided to continue her education by going to special schools. In 2013, she was admitted by the special education department to Chongqing Normal University based in Chongqing, a close neighbor of Sichuan.

After graduation from the university, Tan became an assistant lawyer at a layer firm run by Tang Shuai, the country’s only sign language lawyer. After working for Tang for a period of time, Tan realized that she wanted to become a lawyer. “People with hearing impairment couldn’t express themselves properly when they were in need of legal assistance, which resulted in them being treated unfairly in some cases. Because of this, I told myself that I should learn hard,” Tan typed in a line, explaining the reason why she wanted to take the unified qualification exam for legal professionals.

The exam had proven extremely difficult for Tan because the knowledge she had learnt under the framework of special education was very different from that offered through mainstream education. Without having learnt any legal knowledge, she had to start from scratch.

While preparing for the exam, Tan got up at 6 a.m. and went to bed at 11 p.m. every day. She had failed the exam twice before, once in 2018 and again in 2019, but she had never thought about giving up. However, before she was about to sit for the exam the third time, her mother was diagnosed with terminal stage cancer. “I had thought about giving up. I lost my father when I was 23, and when my mom fell ill, I really wanted to look after her,” she wrote.

Photo shows Tan Ting at work. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

With Tan’s mother continuing to provide encouragement, Tan didn’t give up in the end. In January, she finally passed the national unified qualification exam for legal professionals and became an interning lawyer.

While providing legal assistance for hearing-impaired people, the biggest obstacle for her was the “language barrier.” The word order of the sign language Tan was taught at the special schools is consistent with spoken language, but most of her clients use a different sign language that is expressed through the use of hand gestures and facial expressions, and the grammar is also different.

Meanwhile, it has been difficult for Tan to speak a word since she lost her hearing. To make sure she could pronounce words correctly, Tan would read aloud a single word several hundreds of times. Gradually, her spoken words could be identified and properly translated by an app into a textual format, which allowed her to communicate better with clients. Now, Tan is capable of independently providing legal advice through the use of sign language, and assists lawyers in handling legal cases.

Photo shows Tan Ting at work. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Tan, who also publicizes legal knowledge on online and offline platforms, said she is determined to do a good job so that people with hearing impairment can gain legal awareness, abide by the law, and become better able to protect their lawful rights.